Director Quality

We’re looking for a Director, Quality to lead quality strategy and execution across Oura’s global engineering organization and supply chain.

What You Will Do:

• In this role, you will ensure that quality and reliability are designed into our products, components, suppliers, and manufacturing processes from concept through development, launch, ramp, and sustaining operations. You will lead a global team of quality professionals and partner closely with Product Development, Hardware, Software, Reliability, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Customer Experience, and external suppliers.
• You will connect customer and field needs to engineering requirements, component controls, supplier capability, manufacturing performance, and product reliability. Your team will help Oura identify risks early, make evidence-based decisions, prevent defects, and resolve complex issues with durable corrective actions.
• This is a broad, highly cross-functional leadership role for an experienced quality executive who can set strategy, develop talent, influence engineering and operations leaders, and engage deeply in both product and supply chain quality when needed.
• Set the quality strategy: Define Oura’s quality vision, operating model, standards, metrics, and priorities across product development, components, suppliers, manufacturing, reliability, and the field.
• Lead and develop a global quality organization: Build, mentor, and manage a high-performing team across product quality, component quality, supplier quality, manufacturing quality, reliability, program quality, and sustaining quality.
• Embed quality across the product lifecycle: Establish effective quality gates and decision criteria from concept and architecture through EVT, DVT, PVT, launch, ramp, and sustaining.
• Partner with engineering and product leaders: Influence product architecture, design decisions, materials, specifications, interfaces, validation plans, and manufacturability to prevent quality and reliability issues.
• Strengthen component and supplier quality: Translate product requirements into component specifications, supplier quality requirements, qualification plans, control plans, inspection strategies, and process controls. Drive supplier capability and performance across the global supply chain.
• Drive manufacturing readiness and performance: Ensure production processes are validated and controlled, with appropriate PFMEA, process capability, measurement systems, yield targets, traceability, reaction plans, and continuous improvement mechanisms.
• Lead risk-based quality planning: Establish disciplined use of DFMEA, PFMEA, reliability planning, design reviews, tolerance analysis, GR&R, SPC, DOE, and risk-based verification and validation.
• Own complex problem solving: Lead containment, failure analysis, root-cause investigation, corrective action, preventive action, and verification of effectiveness for product, component, supplier, manufacturing, reliability, and field issues.
• Build strong field-quality feedback loops: Use warranty, returns, customer support, field failure, reliability, manufacturing, and supplier data to identify systemic risks and drive improvements that reduce member impact and cost of poor quality.
• Lead launch and ramp readiness: Review product and component qualification, supplier capability, manufacturing readiness, validation evidence, yield, open risks, reliability results, and corrective actions before launch and ramp decisions.
• Govern quality-related changes: Ensure design, material, component, supplier, process, software, and manufacturing changes are evaluated for quality and reliability impact and implemented consistently through ECR/ECN and change-control processes.
• Establish a data-driven quality operating system: Define leading and lagging indicators across development, suppliers, manufacturing, and the field. Improve data quality, traceability, dashboards, and escalation mechanisms.
• Drive continuous improvement: Reduce defects, escapes, returns, warranty claims, rework, scrap, and other sources of cost of poor quality while improving product reliability, supplier performance, and customer experience.
• Influence cross-functional decisions: Provide clear, risk-based recommendations when quality, schedule, cost, performance, capacity, and supply continuity priorities compete.
• Communicate with senior leadership: Present concise assessments of product risk, supplier and manufacturing performance, launch readiness, field quality, and improvement priorities.
• Build a culture of prevention and accountability: Make quality a shared responsibility across engineering and operations, with clear ownership for requirements, validation, supplier controls, manufacturing execution, and sustained performance.

This is a hybrid role out of our San Francisco office.

What you'll bring

• 15+ years of experience in product quality, supplier quality, manufacturing quality, reliability, operations quality, or a related engineering discipline, including significant people leadership experience.
• Demonstrated success leading quality for complex, high-volume consumer electronics, wearable, medical-adjacent, or similarly reliability-sensitive products.
• Experience leading and developing teams across one or more of the following areas: product quality, component quality, supplier quality, manufacturing quality, reliability, program quality, or sustaining quality.
• A track record of establishing quality strategy, operating mechanisms, and measurable improvements from early product development through launch and sustaining.
• Strong understanding of product development, design verification and validation, component qualification, reliability engineering, supplier quality, manufacturing processes, and production ramp.
• Strong command of quality and problem-solving methods, including FMEA, 8D, CAPA, SPC, GR&R, DOE, root-cause analysis, control plans, and process capability.
• Experience using engineering, field, warranty, customer support, supplier, and manufacturing data to identify systemic risks and drive corrective action.
• Demonstrated ability to influence engineering, operations, suppliers, and executive leadership without relying solely on direct authority.
• Experience with engineering change control, supplier changes, component qualification, process validation, manufacturing readiness, or production quality improvement.
• Strong understanding of DFM/DFA, GD&T, Lean and Six Sigma principles, measurement systems, and quality management systems.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate complex technical risks into concise decisions and actions.
• A self-directed, pragmatic, and resilient leadership style, with a willingness to engage deeply in details while maintaining a strategic perspective.
• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial, Systems, Manufacturing, or a related engineering field required; advanced degree or quality certification is a plus.
• Preferred qualifications
• Experience with both product quality and supplier or manufacturing quality, or demonstrated ability to operate effectively across both domains.
• Experience with batteries, electronics, sensors, RF systems, precision mechanics, adhesives, miniaturized assemblies, or other demanding product technologies.
• Experience leading quality for products that combine hardware, firmware, software, and cloud-enabled member experiences.
• Experience building or scaling quality management systems during rapid company growth.
• Familiarity with product safety, regulatory, compliance, traceability, and risk-management requirements relevant to wearable technology.
• Experience with supplier development, APQP, PPAP, SCAR processes, multi-source strategies, capacity expansion, or major manufacturing transitions.
• Experience working across multiple countries, engineering sites, suppliers, and manufacturing partners.

Nice to have:

• HW Experience
• Global distributor teams
• grown and org

Benefits

At Ōura, we care about you and your well-being. Everyone here at Ōura has a ring of their own and we are continually looking to improve employee health.

What we offer:

• Competitive salary and equity packages
• Health, dental, vision insurance, and mental health resources
• An Ōura Ring of your own plus employee discounts for friends & family
• 20 days of paid time off plus 13 paid holidays plus 8 days of flexible wellness time off
• Paid sick leave and parental leave

Ōura takes a market-based approach to pay, which may vary depending on your location. US locations are categorized into tiers based on a cost of labor index for that geographic area. While most offers will be closer to the starting range, successful candidates' pay will be determined based on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, internal peer equity, and market conditions. These ranges may be modified in the future.

Region 1 $226,000-$266,000
Region 2 $MIN- $MID
Region 3 $MIN- $MID

A recruiter can determine your Region based on your US location.

We are not considering candidates residing in the following states: Alaska (AK), Delaware (DE), Iowa (IA), Mississippi (MS), Nebraska (NE), South Dakota (SD), West Virginia (WV), and Wisconsin (WI).